Pier to get safety, structural overhaul

Editor‚Äôs note: This story is part of an ongoing series that tracks the city‚Äôs expenditures appearing on upcoming Santa Monica City Council consent agendas. Consent agenda items are routinely passed by the City Council with little or no discussion from elected officials or the public. However, many of the items have been part of public discussion in the past.

CITY HALL ‚Äî The City Council will consider an $8.5 million contract for the complete demolition and reconstruction of a portion of the iconic Santa Monica Pier at its meeting Tuesday.

The 360-foot section, which runs from the high tide line to the concrete westerly piece of the pier, is made of wood and has been weakened to the point that it has difficulty accommodating emergency and commercial delivery vehicles, according to a city staff report.

Moffatt & Nichol, a consultant that inspected the pier, recommended that the section be replaced with a new pier made of concrete piles and pile caps, timber stringers and timber decking.

The concrete substructure would make the new piece of the pier both durable and low maintenance, according to the report.

An engineer‚Äôs estimate for the project came out to $6.5 million, but did not include construction time and costs associated with splitting the work into phases in order to decrease the impacts on businesses.

City Hall also had to add $300,000 to the base bid to pay for mitigations for construction impacts, but saved roughly the same amount by substituting less expensive features.

Ultimately, Meek Shea, Joint Venture was recommended for the $8.2 million contract. URS Corporation will provide engineer services and hazardous materials testing for $210,000 and an additional $100,000 will be set aside for utility relocation work and public outreach.

Overall, the contracts comprise $8,510,000 of the $13,284,453 consent agenda.

Raising the roof

The roof on one of Santa Monica‚Äôs water reservoirs needs repair and, according to city officials, it will cost roughly $1.5 million to do it.

The Arcadia Reservoir holds up to 5 million gallons of potable water at the Santa Monica Water Treatment Facility. The roof is composed of wooden beams under an aluminum covering, and several of the beams are beginning to deteriorate.

The project would involve repairing the damaged framing, installing a steel access platform over the roof to protect workers during future maintenance and installation of waterproofing material over the existing roof.

City Hall received three sealed bids and selected Mallcraft, Inc. for the job.

The highest bidder, Orian Construction & Roofing, Inc., disputed the decision claiming that Mallcraft had not met the bidding requirements, but City Hall disagreed.

The total contract comes out to $1,513,000.

Traffic signals

The next phase of an ongoing project to upgrade traffic signals in Santa Monica is expected to cost over $1.4 million, and will go to the council for approval Tuesday night.

The money would pay for signal upgrades and the installation of fiber optic communication lines along the Ocean Park Boulevard, Main Street and Neilson Way corridors. That includes 26 intersections.

Staff recommends Dynalectric for the task because it has worked on other phases of the traffic signal upgrade project and had costs that fell within City Hall‚Äôs budget.

The total contract is worth $1,420,000, and an additional $47,000 is needed to match grant funding from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

According to the staff report, this is the penultimate phase in the five-part project. The last is currently in the design stage, and expected to be complete by June 2013, depending on funding.

Environmental work

Staff recommends environmental consultant AMEC for a $601,000 contract to prepare environmental documents for the Downtown Specific Plan, an effort meant to guide the future of Santa Monica‚Äôs lucrative Downtown.

The company would prepare a program environmental impact report, or PEIR, that will clear projects that comply with the Downtown Specific Plan. That could include transit-oriented development that city staff assumes will pop up around the Exposition Light Rail Line, set to end at Fourth Street and Colorado Avenue.

The contract will be paid for through a $601,000 grant from the Metro Transit-Oriented Development Planning Grant.

Airport parking

Airport officials are recommending that the City Council approve $507,000 for a temporary parking lot that could be leased to local car dealers to raise revenues for Santa Monica Airport.

The paving would cover 1.7 acres of aviation land on the northeast end of the airport. Officials estimate that it could generate $100,000 in new revenue per year if leased to local auto dealers for storage.

Staff recommends PALP, Inc. for the job, the same company that recently completed the Ocean Park Boulevard Green Street project.

Property tax audit

The City Council is expected to approve a five year, $228,500 contract with HdL Coren and Cone for property tax audit services.

If selected, HdL Coren and Cone will prepare a preliminary and final property tax report for all tax districts and former redevelopment project areas. They would also forecast property tax revenues, figure out other payments and passthroughs and update bond information.

Audits are important ‚Äî they can turn up mistakes that result in wrongly-distributed funds within the city as happened in 1997 when an audit found problems with property taxes in the Earthquake Recovery Redevelopment Project area.

The City Council‚Äôs decision Tuesday would set aside $24,375 for this fiscal year. Future funding is dependent on later council approval.

City Hall improvements

Those who have attended public meetings at City Hall in the past several months may have noticed bumping and grinding not attributable to angry residents.

City Hall has been undergoing a series of upgrades, and the council will be asked to sign off on yet another one, this time to reconfigure office space for the Human Resources Department.

The improvements include demolition, construction of new partitions and offices and the installation of lighting, air conditioning and a ceiling system.

There will also be a public counter.

SIGMA Services, Inc. came in as the lowest bidder on the project and has completed similar services on pre-1950s buildings in the past, according to the staff report.

The total contract is $233,360. Construction is expected to take eight months.

Fencing

City divisions joined forces on a three year, $450,000 contract that will deal with all of Santa Monica‚Äôs fencing needs.

The contract provides for temporary fencing services, like that blocking people from climbing on the landmarked “Chain Reaction” statue, as well as maintenance and repair of motorized fencing.

Only Santa Monica Fence bid on the project. Only $150,000 will be available after June 30. The contract also includes two one-year renewal options, each worth $150,000.

More roofing

Three public buildings are in need of roof repair, and staff recommends two companies split the award to get the lowest price possible.

Cabral Roofing & Waterproofing was recommended to fix the roofs at the Fairview Library and Woodlawn Cemetery Maintenance Building, and Eberhard was selected for Fire Station 3 on the 1900 block of 19th Street.

The two companies will be responsible for attaching a white reflective roof membrane with a 20-year warranty to each of the three roofs.

The repair will prevent future damage and hopefully expensive repairs in the future, according to the staff report. Hiring both companies will save roughly $15,000.

Under the terms of the contract, Cabral Roofing & Waterproofing would receive $96,658 and Eberhard would get $43,217.

Tires

A flat or damaged tire is no one‚Äôs idea of a good time, and City Hall is seeking to prevent that unexpected misfortune with two purchase orders to keep Santa Monica vehicles well-shod through June 30.

The first, for Tarulli Tire, is a $13,842 purchase to cover tires already needed between July 1, 2012 and Jan. 21, 2013, meant to tide the city over until it could conduct a formal bid.

That bid ended with Parkhouse Tire Inc. on top. The company will provide new, recapped and repaired tires to replace worn and damaged tires for $94,000 through June 30.

The contract includes two one-year renewal options, each worth $145,000.

Airport noise

Many people take issue with the noise coming out of Santa Monica Airport, but Landrum & Brown consultant Vince Mestre has specialized in telling Santa Monicans just how noisy the airport is since 1982.